It's not possible in game. I don't know why. Maybe bug or some strange decision. Game works on DX11 by default.
At the moment only way to start in DX12 is to manually add -DX12 at the end of executable file.
I suggest you go in GOG Galaxy and click on the little button which is next to "Play" button on the right side.
Menu will be shown and you click on "Mange installation" and "Configure"
Window will open and you choose "Features", at he bottom click on "Add another executable / arguments".
In File 3 you must choose Everspace 2 executable file which is:

..\EVERSPACE™ 2\ES2\Binaries\Win64\ES2-Win64-Shipping.exe

In "Argument" goes: -dx12
Do not forget to click on "Default Executable" at the bottom which will make this new default executable.
Click OK and you're done.

Start game with "Play" button as usual.
In game go in "Settings" and Renderer should now shown D3D12

Ok, thanks for the explanation; i think i will leave it at DX11 for now because apparently intended by the devs for unknown reasons. I heard some stories related to stability issues and DX12 should be without any advantage because the game is not using any DX12 features it seems. So far the game is running stable for me...

As far as i know, in theory DX12 can allow for some graphic boost, however, without support there is probably no visible difference. On the other hand, it may increase instabilitys, which kinda was a issue... at least during development or maybe even at the newest release. The performance drop is no issue to me at all because the game is not very demanding on the newest systems, but graphically surely one of the most awesome space shooters ever.

Sure, it totaly depends on the settings: Max settings at 60 FPS/1080P is no challenge but at 120 FPS/1080P it will start to become a bit taxing. However, without 120 FPS/4k the 3090 TI will not run into troubles and at 120 FPS/4k the 4090 is probably the only GPU able to deliver the demanded performance, although this is a luxury-demand. Frametime, which is even more critical than raw FPS is very stable for me, so it really runs very smooth so far.

60 FPS/1080P: https://ibb.co/bXfrkrW
120 FPS/1080P: https://ibb.co/bB37NNs

Regarding bugs or those "crashes"... no clue yet... guess will have to play more.

Where the cheat codes to ES2?

any time prediction on a hotfix for the crashes?

get always crash when buying and directly using a new ship (during loading screen).
and very often crash when jumping out of a system/mission.

What i do not get is the "overheating-issue" on weapons which seems to be a factor, although there is just close to no feedback or feeling for it... you simply have a certain amount of shots or whatever you do and the turret may stop working properly. There is just close to no feedback which is important for a good "management".

A good example for heat management was "Colony Wars Red Sun", which had a pretty good heat-management. This game in overall was much more simplified but the feeling for many of its weapons and components, until today, is still supreme.

Some guns did huge damage, had a very close range... but they had a high overheat-issue. Other guns are with huge range, low overheat issue... basically the "safe grinding weapons" if the situation is "under control" and no dense fighting required.

Everspace 2, in overal, surely is one of the best space shooter ever made and for countless of years we didnt have a space shooter such as this one, yet, there is still lot of improvement possible. Surely, the flight-characteristics and such, probably best ever made, so there is just huge potential.

I think the dev team will have to look over it, and maybe improve the weapon-response... simply improve the "feel" a gamer will get dependable on the weapon condition, so some serious managament can be done. The turrets still need more love, somehow... but i am only at the beginning yet; maybe i may experience some advancement soon.

In general, i got the impression, this game pretty much took "the best of many previous space shooters" and truly was succeeding combining many of this stuff in one single package; so it is a huge leap for this genre in many ways. However, of course, there is still endless of fine tuning and improvements possible.

It's not overheating, it's running the gun's capacitors/magazines dry.

The energy bar for your guns is visible around the crosshair (right side). Said bar is NOT shared between weapons, each gets their own.
However, your generator will not recharge your guns while you are still firing (similar to how your shields don't recharge while you're still taking fire), so it's easy to run dry unless you switch, and switch often.

To complicate this, the Gunship class, which is built around bullet spam, actually has 4 hardpoints, meaning it has double the drain of the other ships. A few ship types have "unlimited dakka!"-style overdrive abilities, but most of the time it's firing until dry, then switching to the other set, repeat until dead.

You can get a perk at level 10 that reduces weapon drain by 15% for each device on cooldown, and at that point most ships have 2-3 device slots, so it helps putting more projectiles down range.

Indeed: Actually is it not a overheating issue in this case, rather a energy issue. Because i do not see any heat-management at all. However, the energy-management is almost invisible; just some small "hud-bar" directly at the enemy. Usually this bar is used in order to show the condition of the enemy-ship (which is done directly at the enemy in this case), not truly the own condition. If energy is running out, not even a warning... it simply may stop and as a beginner you may think "what is going on", but of course... those who know it they may feel very confident. Boost bar... well, i think this is all based on the imagination that everything basically should be full.

This can be handled differently, because; on Colony Wars Red Sun there is a energy and heat management. Full actually means "bad"; because if energy is at the "upper edge" it means there is to much energy used and the energy storage need a refill. The advantage of a "negative management" is that you basically can add a heat-bar and if the heat is to much then the worse condition, in this case the heat, will go up. I do not see something like this, just range and energy management, and which is actually interesting "boost management". But to me, the special-boost is simply some sort of "emergency mode", not the most stable gameplay-element.

I try to compare it with games like those, all of them some sort of milestones and many of the elements are in some way used in Everspace 2. There is probably some more but in my mind it comes closest to those games.

-Colony Wars Red Sun
-Freelancer
-Freespace
-Eve Online

The items and weapon types are somewhat comparable to EVE online, but this is very much static... dependable on range and in this case a raw energy-management (which is actually comparable how EVE online is handling it). Emergency-modules which is comparable to a boost module is used too. There is not really any overheating but the weapon can get damaged, but i think this is not a fun gameplay-element... it just will create unnecessary "grind". Heat management on the other hand can be interesting.

Maybe there is some heat management too... Everspace 2 is surely a complicated game and trying to "give it all"... which, for a long time... we have never experienced anymore. I dunno why, apparently to less gamer-demand and so this genre was with pretty low "love" in general. Of course, Everspace was OK but it is in no way Everspace 2, this is a open world "space shooter" with so many custom-elements... it is a completly new league and something rarely ever be seen anymore: Surely a game able to catch my attention and enjoyment.

I had the Dev version for many years already, not because i wanted to play a unfinished game... just in order to support the devs and giving my voice. Now that the game is "barely made", i actually was starting to play it, and indeed... we have a rare case of a... once again... well made space shooter with the custom i always was in favor of.

I actually wonder how the rather small dev team was able to execute it, because this sort of games are the most difficult ones in almost any case.

Not even sure: My shield with a new module seems to actively recharge itself but some shields will only recharge in term i use the boost-mode. Still a bit confusing but i enjoy a rather stable approach (automatic recharge) instead of all the boost-approach. In battle there is enough to watch and it is another element increasing complexity... this can be good or bad... dependable on the own demand and skill.

Not really enjoying the idea of having any "auto recharge" completly deactivated as soon as i fire and/or getting damage. It will indeed, almost force you to constantly switch out weapons and maybe you prefer to stay on a certain weapon type... AND you still may not enjoy to use several of the same turrets at once; in order to be able to switch out.

Anyway, so far i still need much more experience; so my experience is the one of a "beginner"; important to me because if a game fails to "catch" you at the very beginning, giving some sort of "access" to everyone, then it may fail to motivate on the longer term. So, there need to be some "skill-scaling", with a learning curve not to crazy. However, there is many difficultys we can switch to... so far this is helpful.

Of course, i was playing a lot of space shooters already but Everspace 2 is new to me... so i experience it at the very beginning. Indeed, a fascinating game, one of those we rarely ever get.

It looks like a big improvement from the first version (I own Everspace). However - I love to give the game a "testride" before buying it. There is a Demo available on Steam already as far as I know, but I don't see one over here.

Does anyone knows if a Demo version is planned here on GOG?

If you love space games, RPG and shooters, no demo needed... simply buy and be happy about.

There is not so many great space games, and so far... Everspace 2 is a true successor of a line of "top notch" space games; this is definitely clear to me, at this point and after around 30 hours of playing-time yet. So i think my "under development fee several years ago" was a good investment.

However, i do love RPG, open world (which is actually a semi-open world on Everspace 2) and space games... so this game is hitting the stuff i love pretty hard.

The balancing, when it comes to combat, is good and fair so far (after all the difficulty can always be adjusted, this works fine so far).. you can find a challenge but it is doable even for beginners. The weapons are truly interesting with many unique characteristics.... just a dream to play, definitely. There is a lot of work involved and it is not a mindless game; it is created from someone truly enjoying space shooters and RPG too.

Although the story is so far rather average... it is absolutely okay but there could be more improvement and a more epic storytelling.

The music is .... aswell... okay but nothing to brag about. I think if there is a Everspace 3 (considering the high quality of Everspace 2 i am pretty sure this saga will continue), they definitely should improve at this spot aswell...

So far the game exceeds at gameplay and its replay value including combat... one of the best ever made at those spots.

Still, i am now almost LV. 13 and i barely was able to manage gathering around 160 000 Credits and in theory i could already ride a T3 ship and now finally i was able to get the credits in order to "barely manage" buying a T2+ ship... and so far never any new ships gotten... so i think, at least at the "early game" the game got a rather harsh "learning curve" and it seems like that the "big credits" is earned way above LV. 15 which is actually already half of the max level possible (at the current time). So i think you simply will have to reach a certain spot in the game in order to be able to seriously "afford" something else. Sooner than that you are pretty much simply doomed and i was using the "free ship" for 12 levels already. It barely makes any sense at this spot switching to another T1 or even T2 ship... because the level up is actually very fast but the credits pretty hard "to be earned". I mean, some ships are easely several hundred credits and after 30 hours of playtime i only got 150 thousand...

I guess it will change in the endgame but i think, for beginners.... the game is to less rewarding and focused on endgame to much.

There is also a race-side-mission and hard to believe but you have to finish ALL 10 RACES AT ONCE in order to get 10 000 credits and 10 000 experience an the player char is calling it "good reward"... it was never my impression of becoming a good reward here, comparable to the "time spend".

So far the jobs are the best credits-source... but high tier ships are expensive... so, you will need every bit of it.

Leveling up is very easy... i tend to switch out modules so often because "outleveled"; so i was never focused on this, the only difficult issue is the "credits-grinding" and i think as long as you dont do endgame-content then it is "hard earned"... but maybe at above LV. 20 things will change, we will see.

The controls and just almost anything in combat is really well made, at this spot surely a dream. Regarding graphics.. i truly enjoy taking my sweet time investigating everything else, because it is truly astounding, a level never seen before on a space-game; very atmospheric. Definitely a impressive game, i feel there is just about a handful of space games "at the same league" such as this one.

Try trading, it's infinitely repeatable and decent cash. You also won't need to sell items that are better recycled for upgrade parts later on.

Oh, and mod a gun with the mining catalyst, later perk upgrades need a metric crapton of "rare" ores. I didn't at first, and it came back to bite me in the ass.

Tier 4 ships are locked behind a truly scary list of ship trader perks, each more expensive than the last.

Probably gonna buy me a T2 Interceptor "Stalker H7" because it just fits my play-style well, it is the ship with high energy-support to the weapons and a lot of turret-slots. So, the turrets may not run out of energy quick, a thing really a hassle to me. Although it is challenging to use because either it is "kill or get killed", this ship is very offensive. Noticed there is 2 versions so far, one version "H2" got 10% primary weapon damage bonus and the other "H7" will refund 20% of Overdrive-energy, so it may benefit the peak-damage even more, while the "H2" is more of a allrounder with higher overall reliability.

Actually i had in mind to get me a T2+ but so far no good offer interesting to me. So i rather go to T2 and save up the Credits for a T3 instead. Until this moment i think the T2 will be a lot of joy.

Not sure i will tag along with the high speed-hype from the Vanguard, Striker, and Vindicator too... they are very fast ships in their class and maybe even overpowered; we will see. I will simply try them out at some point and notice it myself. Interceptor is actually not rated bad, just not so "overhyped" such as the previous 3.

Regarding trading i will have to investigate... not sure what you mean exactly.

Oh yeah, the Interceptor is lot of fun. I was attacking a base and somehow the basement turrets was recharging their shield like crazy, i was unable to get it down; then i used the ULT and i really wiped the floor using this ability... it was lot lo of fun. I think, so far i did not experience any space shooter with this grade of action combat, totally new experience.

I was playing more than 30 hours now, not a single crash. I guess there is probably issues with the Galaxy-launcher and/or software/hardware issues. For me this game so far is very stable and smooth but i only use the installer... so there is lesser odds.

The ship perks (and the visuals) are random, from a short list specific to the ship class. You can unlock a perk later on that gives you a "re-roll" on the perk list. You also get cosmetic parts, allowing you to switch out bits for better optics.

Rockfish patched the game last Saturday. Achievements now work, in a way, they get updated when the game syncs the savegames, and it's been running stable since then.

Regarding trading, almost impossible because i will have to store many materials and i got a continuous cargo space issue. Of course i always dismantle and try to "wipe out" unnecessary stuff but still... there is just to less space and it is kinda taking away the fun for trading and other space-robber gameplay-elements. I dunno if there is a good solution...

Generally, for a heavy item-dependent game-system you DO NEED space... this is not something that should be artificially limited way to much, especially not on the station-storage. But ship storage could be bigger too... in general. There is just way to much items and 30 slot or so... this is simply nothing. I dont know if this will get expanded at some endgame but so far the limit is to low, definitely. I have to wipe my cargo even in the middle of a mission...

Maybe i can use many ships, i dont know how many... and then maybe store the trading materials or whatelse there: I did not try it out because i only got a single ship so far (just makes no sense keeping a T1 ship i never use again).

On EVE online there was special ships for this duty, the hauler-ships able to store huge amount of items. Everspace 2 lacks this sort of ships or stuff, but trading only got a "occasional" character here with pretty limited quantities. Not sure it is even worth it... because the amount of items in general is just to low and the space in a "used ship" just to small for this.

Maybe in endgame content there is way more expensive items "to trade" but so far this is not affecting me in the middle-end (around LV. 15).

I mean this game is pretty much combat-oriented, so everything which is done will in some way be linked to the combat-duty and a combat ship. Actually a great idea which will allow for maximum versatility and you can basically use almost any ship for almost any duty. However, i think the versatility may have to be improved so this "generalized" element may work out even better.

I was checking this out, they say "you can make 60-100k credits in just 10 min, a round" (it needs time to restock so of course this is always just a certain round, once every hour or so).

ht___tps://steamcommunity.com/app/1128920

So, i was using a ship with around 25 cargo slots left. Filling up everything at Union with the recommended goods i was able to find. In the end, after selling it do the Dutchman, i got around 30k credits out of it and it took me around 25 min; maybe 20 min without the small talk going on at the stations. Anyway, in the end i made 2 times lesser than the minimum amount and required 2 times more time. So, i simply made something realistic... and the other guys.. i dont know, either they had the endgame boost or they are "unrealistic experts".

Anyway, doing jobs i may be able to get 3000 in 10 min, 6000 in 20 min.. so indeed i got around 5 times more. However, the income is not steady... always "a wave" once every hour, but at least it works, indeed.

Well, next ship i buy will be T3 and i currently got 190k credits now, it may happen not to far into the future.

What i dont get is: When i use my ULT and it is not fully charged, absolutely nothing will happen at all, no warning, nothing.... it simply will not work. Why not to use some sort of warning?

In general the information and/or response is rather lacking.

Well, i got my Vanguard now but i do not feel to confident using it because it is really with the weakest defense possible. The ULT is good to have but it will charge rather slowly. In general Everspace 2 is not the "fastest" game and the speed difference between the ships is lower than what could be expected. Although, maybe with increased modules the %-bonus to the stats, including speed, may make a big difference. So far hard to say... but for a beginner i would not recommend something like a Vanguard. Interceptor seems better deal or maybe a Striker. The issue is simply, the speed difference is not really big... maybe 10-20% but it may need way more for the almost non existent defenses to make up for it. Cruising mode can always be acticated but it is usesless for attacking because the weapon range and lack of inertia (Cruising basically is disabling any inertia-spec, making it locked... which is weird to me) will not allow for it... its a mode in order to "move the damaged ship" away from the dangerous area... but useless for attacking. Surely will have to boost all the time, but in general this is used on absolutely any ship... the only difference: If it is not used all the time on the Vanguard you are doomed because all about speed and getting out of the frontline.

The inertia is surely good, so it makes it easyer trying to go into the required rear-position but to me, in a huge fight, i would rather enjoy the higher offensive potential of a Interceptor or a Striker. It should be the fastest but aswell "lightest" ship ingame, and in my mind, it should be used for experienced players. It is not a "instant win" vessel... rather in order to be fast and... driving risky.

Surely it looks good, which is actually the minority to me. Most ships are rather "so so", they lack some sort of artistic design. So far the 2 i own are "well made":

Stalker-H7-Interceptor: https://ibb.co/LYKFfC7
K-I7-Vanguard: https://ibb.co/9VmwPTp

In my mind they have to increase the speed or ULT of the Vanguard, maybe even Scout and Stinger, as it stands now... i would rather pick a slower ship. The defense penalty is just to heavy, and the speed bonus seems minor. Yet i can still use the Vanguard in order to "win races" and in order to raise the difficulty... at some point. Scout and Stinger i definitely will not get, this is now clear to me: I think i rather enjoy firepower and not the armor of a gnat. Next ship is probably Striker or Bomber.

In EVE Online, things works more in favor for small and fast ships because they will have a drastically smaller signature and in this term many weapons either fail to track or the damage is way lower. In Everspace 2 the difference is as it seems none... small ships will take same damage but the armor is simply several times smaller... not enough in order to compensate. And true sniper weapons... does not seem to exist (above 5 km i say). So, this small ships in my mind, in this game... are lacking love.

UPDATE:

After some good time with the Vanguard, actually i start to get used to it and with some good shield modules able to support a strong shield and a steady boost... it can make a lot of fun. I still do not feel it is the strongest ship but if there is a lot of very quick enemies and by using the time slowmotion ULT, the Vanguard can be very useful. And the damage from the "rear" is pretty huge but this is only useful against bosses or huge targets. Small targets will need the Ult for a very quick kill. Clearly challenging ship but it can make a lot of fun too.

Now i got me the T3 Striker, very hard to get as it is a named one. The stuff is just gone way to quick and either you got the credits or... thats it, in most cases.

I found out, the "named" ships, the ones without "Code" like B7 or so... they are way rarer then the others and usually with better design and in general the best "passive attributes", so... if you can catch this one... best ships ever.

The Vanguard is, in my experience, a "named" ship too, because it only got a single letter as a name, so it is unique in this term. The passive specs are great too (no bad stuff at this spot).

However, i only got the Insurgent-Striker so far... i had to sell almost the entire storage in order to get it, but it is awesome.

Insurgent-Striker: https://ibb.co/T1DMdkz

Other great ships i found (unfortunately not in my hangar... and of course they was gone very quick):

X-25 Swift Wing-Striker: https://ibb.co/pPx8JwF

Goldstar-Bomber: https://ibb.co/nPyJj64